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Walks come back to bite Russets

BY JASON ENESsports@cableone.net
AMMON — A night after watching a late comeback fall short, the Shelley Russets American Legion baseball team retook the field of Hillcrest High School for day two of the Idaho Falls tournament.
While the Russets did a lot of things right during their two games, one thing came back to bite them every time, and those were walks.

Shelley gave up 21 runs and 12 hits on the afternoon, but it was the combined 12 walks that led to many of the runs as the Russets fell 10-5 to Centennial and 11-1 in six innings to Mountain Home.
"We hit the ball pretty well in both games," Shelley head coach Tom Bean told his team after the conclusion of the day. "We still need to work on putting together a full seven innings and cleaning up the little things, once we figure that out we will win some games."
In the days' first game with Centennial, the Russets jumped out to a 3-1 lead after one inning thanks to five first inning hits.
Tyler Bean, Zack Leal and Josh Peterson each had RBI hits, with Bean's triple being the innings big blow.
Those three runs looked like it may be enough for Shelley starter Konnor Gilstrap. For the next two innings it was, but in the fourth inning a couple of walks and an error allowed the Cannons to push three runs across without the benefit of a hit.
Shelley tacked on a run in the fifth to tie the game up at four after Colt Johnson's RBI single.
But just like against Boise Thursday, the Cannons rallied, scoring six runs in the final two innings to earn the victory.
Shelley tried to close the gap in the bottom of the seventh, unfortunately they managed just to get just one run across in the innings.
Tyler Bean was the offensive star of the game for the Russets going 4-for-4 with a triple, three doubles and two RBI.
The walk bug from the end of game one for the Shelley pitching staff reared its ugly head to start the second game of the day against Mountain Home.
Second game starter Connor Montgomery walked two and allowed one hit in the opening inning, the single drove in one run a fielding error brought home the other.
The Mountain Home offense seemed to capitalize on every mistake made by the Russets in the game, scoring in all but one inning of the game.
The Royals scored two in the second, one in the fourth, five in the fifth and the game ender in the six inning.
In the five-run fifth, the Royals sent nine batters to the plate recording just two hits, a double by Skyler Quintal and a single by Ross Harlen, only Harlen's single drove in a run. It was two errors on play later in the inning that allowed two big runs to score.
Shelley's offense was held in check by the Royals starter Jesse Cobos as the managed just one run and five hits in the game.
Bean hit his fourth double of the afternoon in the sixth inning to finish the day at the plate 5-for-7 with all five hits being extra base hits.
Shelley (1-8) has a busy day today as the play three games.
The first is the finale of the Idaho Falls tournament against the Boise Seminoles, that game begins at 10:30 a.m. at Melaleuca Field. They finish off the day with a doubleheader against Bear Lake, those games begin at 2 p.m. at Shelley High School.